Apple continues to expand the capabilities of Maps in iOS 6 with Monday's release of the beta number four, adding a U.S., Canadian and European cities to those with "flyover" 3D data.

In preparation of rolling out its newest mobile operating system, Apple has updated its Maps app to include so-called "flyover" data for a number of major cities worldwide, including Philadelphia, Manchester and Toronto.

It should be noted that the iPad maker has yet to include New York as one of the 3D-capable cities, possibly over terrorism concerns.

New York has yet to receive the flyover treatment in iOS 6 Maps.

Apple announced at WWDC 2012 that it would be ditching Google Maps for its own proprietary mapping service borne out of a 2011 acquisition of Swedish 3D mapping company C3 Technologies, a spin-off from Saab's AB defense arm. A recent side-by-side comparison between 3D maps created in iOS 6 and the new function in Google Maps gave a slight edge to Apple's solution in terms of resolution and rendering speed.

That's just magical. The rest of the world will appreciate the lack of content and no street view.

iOS 6 is looking like it's going to go over about as well as Yahoo with the lack of any real map program or youtube.

Honestly? Street view is nice, but I used it once just to check out the cool pictures. In real life, it is just about useless or in the very least unneeded most of the time. This 3D mapping will be cooler and just as useless as Street view. Apple's maps address the number one shorting coming of the built in maps. Namely the lack of turn by turn navigation. Further, Tom is providing the mapping data, which means the map data will be good.

wow, of all the thousands of densely populated cities in Canada they managed to include ... one.

great /s

Densely populated...

Canada....

Cities.....

THOUSANDS!?

If there were one thousand cities at a million per you'd be at a billion people. You're 9 peeps per square-mile? 35mil CO2 emitters? Hey, sorry they got 1 city but overstating the digits won't help the cause.

That's just magical. The rest of the world will appreciate the lack of content and no street view.

iOS 6 is looking like it's going to go over about as well as Yahoo with the lack of any real map program or youtube.

Street view? Meh. Street view is only really necessary if you're incapable of reading a map.

I can see the argument over transit information, but the rest of the arguments are mostly whining. And if the Apple solution doesn't suit you, no one is stopping you from downloading an app from Google.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

Street view? Meh. Street view is only really necessary if you're incapable of reading a map.
I can see the argument over transit information, but the rest of the arguments are mostly whining. And if the Apple solution doesn't suit you, no one is stopping you from downloading an app from Google.

I do not even see the transit argument because unlike Google Apple is embracing third party solutions and if you need transit maps the build in map application will direct you to available options. Further, people are whining and the product hasn't shipped yet.

Google doesn't have a choice. All apps will default to Apple Maps. Apple Maps need only be "good enough." The only exception are the apparent shut-ins who seem to suggest they are unable to function without low resolution 360 degree panoramic images of everywhere to which they might possibly travel (although that apparently excludes most of the planet).

The percent of users who use the default apps on their smartphone or don't use their smartphone smartly is extremely high.

Notably, there are more cities which have been fully rendered than are listed in the article.

More importantly, the searchable database of points of interest has expanded as much as 1,000 times. The difference is quite dramatic especially in foreign cities (Edinburgh, Rome, Seoul, Sydney, Yokohama, etc.).

Originally Posted by 4TheLoveOfTech
You either live in a box and don't have a computer or your are lying, or you're computer illiterate.

When you need it, I hope Google charges you to use it on 2007 tech phone. Cool calculator though. 2+2 =4. Who would need more than that, it's only 2012.

You're about one or two posts away from a permanent ban, courtesy one of the other mods. Stop posting this stupid crap and get yourself back to a legitimate argument. It's quite obvious you've never even touched an iPhone.

Transit is vital to me, but I expect Google to step up to that task (and Street View as well) and that’s OK. (I do think they’ll wait a bit, to make sure there’s an outcry over the loss of transit, but in the end they want their maps in front of everyone’s eyes, so we’ll get transit back! Sadly, I will then be using two GREAT map apps instead of one single “very good” one. The consolidation was nice.)

Re those Flyover maps: it looks like one of those UK cities is not rendering with the same quality. Birmingham shows realistic oppressive UK fog rolling in, right out of Conan Doyle. But the pea soup fog is missing from the Manchester image. Hopefully they’ll add that before release.

An additional note is that Apple resolved several major issues; traffic data (collisions, construction, road closures, traffic delays), lack of points of interest and small fonts for street names when navigating.

That's just magical. The rest of the world will appreciate the lack of content and no street view.

iOS 6 is looking like it's going to go over about as well as Yahoo with the lack of any real map program or youtube.

Street view is completely worthless. I have never once had the need for it and I travel extensively (as in > 200 days/year). Same with transit. Most cities don't have it and those that do are frequently wrong on the Google routing.

I should also add that Hop Stop is available for free and while not completely integrated with Apple Maps as yet, the maps are courtesy of Apple Maps. Hop Stop provides public transit directions in the following cities:

There are many other excellent apps available today which, while not offering complete integration with Apple Maps are more than sufficient. Certainly far better than the advertising platform Google uses to sucker the poor unfortunates who are lured to Google's closed-fisted grasp.

NO NYC??? REALLY?

I think its really ridiculous if in fact Apple didn't include NYC due to terrorist reasons. Google has street view which is more revealing than the flyover feature. the same case can be made for every city in the USA.

Well, Montreal was already the first Canadian city that they had at the WWDC 2012 demo of Maps, and now they just added Toronto. More cities to follow.

In that case, the fact of the matter is that they only have two cities to go until they have all the Canadian cities with over 1 million people. We don't even have 10 cities with over half a million. The others will come, I'm sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum

If you go to the very very top of the CN tower on Kings Island... On a clear day, You can see downtown Buffalo.
It doesn't get any better than this!